• _skj@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    You won’t find many people who would seriously complain about that phrasing, but it would come off as awkward and stilted to most people from the US.

    And if you extrapolate this and start saying Mexico Americans and Canada Americans for people in those countries, you’re just going to confuse people

    • superduperpirate@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      You won’t find many people who would seriously complain about that phrasing, but it would come off as awkward and stilted to most people from the US.

      Awkward, stilted, and a little holier-than-thou.

      And if you extrapolate this and start saying Mexico Americans and Canada Americans for people in those countries, you’re just going to confuse people

      Mexico American - doesn’t make sense

      Mexican American - American whose origins lie primarily in Mexico

      Canada American - doesn’t make sense

      Canadian American - American whose origins lie primarily in Canada

      Frankly, I think most Canadians would probably feel insulted if you addressed them as Canada Americans. They don’t want to be tainted by association with us.

      • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOP
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        4 hours ago

        Mexicans and Canadians have those demonyms, so no need to worry for them.

        Frankly, I think most Canadians would probably feel insulted if you addressed them as Canada Americans. They don’t want to be tainted by association with us.

        I’ve seen Canadians being okay with being called “North Americans”, when discussing something impacting both Canada and the USA, so it seems in this situations it’s fine by team. Canada Americans would indeed be strange.

        • _skj@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          North American yes, but it would be unusual for a Canadian to call themselves just American. Same for Mexico, though obviously Spanish has its own demonyms that don’t have this problem.

          For a European equivalent, should we say “UK British” when referring to people living in the UK? The UK is the only country to commonly use British to refer to its citizens, but they are not the only country on the British Isles.